Advertisement
Advertisement
Academy Awards
Get more with myNEWS
A personalised news feed of stories that matter to you
Learn more
Rosamund Pike plays Amy Dunne in Gone Girl.

Film review: less extreme than the book, but Gone Girl is still engrossing

With more than six million copies sold, Gillian Flynn's 2012 thriller, is a bona fide publishing phenomenon. Laden with narrative double-takes, adapting the story to film is a tricky prospect — with the task having fallen to David Fincher, a director with ample experience of adapting must-read novels (from to ) for the screen.

 

GONE GIRL
Starring:
Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Neil Patrick Harris
Director: David Fincher
Category: III

With more than six million copies sold, Gillian Flynn's 2012 thriller, is a bona fide publishing phenomenon. Laden with narrative double-takes, adapting the story to film is a tricky prospect — with the task having fallen to David Fincher, a director with ample experience of adapting must-read novels (from to ) for the screen.

Wisely — and rather rarely — he has the book's author on hand to write the screenplay; and both Fincher and Flynn perform an admirable service for those who have not read the book.

is a Missouri-set missing person saga. On the day of her fifth wedding anniversary, Amy Dunne (Rosamund Pike) disappears, leaving behind signs of a struggle and traces of blood. The carnage is discovered by her husband, Nick (Ben Affleck). But has he murdered her? Soon, the local community have him pegged as public enemy number one — with only his sister, Margo (Carrie Coon) vouching for his innocence.

As for Amy, there are some diary entries — flashbacks to their lives together, from their meeting in New York to their first kiss.

"We have each other — everything else is background noise," she had said, but when both get laid off, and Nick's mother is diagnosed with breast cancer, the only option seems to be relocation to Nick's hometown, much to Amy's secret displeasure.

LOST BOY: Ben Affleck faces the media in a scene from the film.

While operates as a thriller, it's really a portrait of the everyday resentment that can fester beneath the surface of a marriage, showing how you can never really know your loved ones.

It's also spot-on in its depiction of the media coverage of such true-life tragedies — with Nick's potential jail-time dependent on presenting his side on daytime chat-shows and siding with a savvy lawyer (comedian Tyler Perry, who is excellent).

Affleck is solid as Nick, a befuddled individual ("I'm so sick of being picked apart by women," he mutters) rarely ahead of the game. Pike, nominated for a best actress Oscar, is more of a surprise choice — although she copes with the pressures of bouncing between the icy blonde and America's sweetheart.

The supporting cast are eminently watchable — notably Scoot McNairy and Neil Patrick Harris, as Amy's two former boyfriends.

Despite its Category III rating, it's debatable whether the film conveys the more extreme sides of the book. Flynn has toned down the more psychotic elements of the story, although Fincher carves out at least one unforgettable scene that rivals the infamous (and sadly cut) original Grand Guignol-ending of when Glenn Close slits her throat to the sound of .

Other than this, Fincher is on reserved form, standing back as Flynn's twisted plotting and a menacing score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross go to work. Compare it, say, to his 2007 film , and comes a distant second.

But there's still an engrossing quality to it.

 

opens on October 2

 

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: The lady vanishes
Post